I had planned on a snowshoe hike yesterday, but there was a little new snow on the ground at our house and Doug couldn't go, so I decided to go skiing with Tanner. Usually, a really good choice, but so much on this day. We get up to Alta and all is good. There's more new snow than I thought and we ski Wildcat the 1st time up to avoid the crowd. There's about a foot of new and Tanner takes me out of my comfort zone (a regular occurrence now) on some steep in the trees. Next time up, we hike a bit and end up at East Greenly. It's steep with good powder and we're giddy. On my 3rd turn, my right ski pops off in apex my my turn and I go down 30 feet below the ski. I grumble and hike back up to it. I can't see the ski but I can see my tracks and know right where it came off. I start to dig with no luck. After about 15 minutes of searching, still no ski. Tanner was at the bottom and I yell to him to go down and come back up to help look.
At this point, I'm getting ticked off. The snow is good, people are whooping as they go down around me. A couple about my age stop and begin looking with me. Tanner makes it back and we systematically dig for an hour. Still no ski. I send Tanner down to check if the ski patrol has a metal detector. The couple continue to dig with me even after I repeatedly tell them to go. Tanner makes it back and says the ski patrol doesn't have a metal detector, but they have a number of a guy who has one and will come hunt for your ski for a fee. Finally, after more than an hour an a half of searching in a snow storm, I'm sore, tired and completely frustrated. We decide that a mental detector is the only way we're going to find the ski.
I thank the couple and they head off. Now I'm faced with getting off the top of the mountain on one ski and deep snow. My quads still hurt today. I had to switch legs every so often and spent some of the time on my rear end just sliding. I thought it wouldn't be that hard. However, next time you go skiing. Try to ski on one leg for a while. Not much fun. We finally make it to the bottom and I'm completely frustrated and ready to hit something. I check in the lodge and they give me the card of "The Ski Hunter". Of course, I left my phone at home, so I called the number on Tanner's phone. All I get is a message that says, "This is Matt, leave a message." So I begin to leave a message. I'm about to leave Tanner's cell phone number and realize I don't know it because it's a speed dial on my phone. I quickly ask Tanner his cell phone number and he goes "I don't know. I never call myself". Therefore, I can't even leave a number for Matt the Ski Hunter to call. I disgustingly toss the phone at Tanner and charge out of the upper lodge at Alta to one-ski it down to the parking lot. I finally make it to the parking lot and wonder around for some time unable to find the Element. Now I'm really pissed and swear to myself I'll never go skiing again. I can't even find the car! After some time, I realize we came in the Jeep and I locate it 30 yards in front of me.
As Tanner and I quietly rode down the canyon. Tanner looks afraid to speak to me but wanting to at least say something to break the tension, he offers up "I guess we should have gone snowshoeing today". Needless to say, that didn't help much.
On the way down, I got the idea of renting a metal detector to look for the ski. I stopped at Diamond Rental by our house and sure enough $29.95 gets you the use of a metal detector for a day. The only problem was the metal detector didn't have batteries. The guy says "no problem, just by 4 AA batteries and we'll take the cost off the total when you return it". I asked two times, "AA batteries, right?" and the guy says yes. We head home, pick up my old skis and head off to the grocery store.
After a relatively quick search, we locate some batteries (of course, I couldn't ask were they were) and I buy the AA's. Back to the car to get test them in the medal detector. I insert the batteries only to discover they don't fit. There's no instructions, but on close examination, it looks like it takes 9 volt instead. Back to the store we go to get the 9 volt. They do actually fit and the detector fires up. Now, it's back up the mountain to search for the ski.
We get on the Collins lift about 2 pm with me carrying a metal detector in one hand and a ski pole in the other. As I get on the lift, of course I drop the ski pole and it falls to the ground as we start up. The lifty gets it and I can't tell if he's handed it to the next chair or not. At the top, I wait for the pole and nothing. I hike over to the lifty on top and he calls down to the bottom and after 5 minutes of who knows what, I learn my pole will stay at the bottom.
Tanner and I make our way over to the crash site without too much difficulty and the grand search begins. We find the spot of my crash easily because of all the dig marks left over from our prior efforts. I test the detector with one of my skis and figure out it will only detect a binding and you have to be within 12 inches. This is not good news and I start the search with the sinking feeling I'll never get close enough to find the ski. At this point of the day, it's snowing hard and there's no one on this part of the mountain. One skier comes by and goes directly below us. She stops at the bottom and yells something up to us. I can't hear but Tanner has a conversation with her. I hear him say, "Is it a K2 Outlaw?" and she yells "Yes". By some miracle, the only skier around hit my ski as she went down. Turns out the ski was 150 yards below where it came off. We would never have looked that far down, even with the metal detector. How it got that far down in that much powder is a mystery.
With great relief, I get to the ski and make it to the bottom of the mountain with everything and everyone in tack. I unload all the extra equipment, get my dropped pole and Tanner and I enjoy some good powder (although visibility was about 10 feet sometimes) for the next hour and a half. Just as I think the day is finally going well, we head back down the canyon. Too bad, everyone else at Alta and Snowbird left at the same time. It took over 30 minutes to get from Alta to Snowbird with many long stretches of no movement. I figured it was a fitting end to the day.
I'm not sure there is a moral to the story, but I'm grateful to have my ski back. I was not excited to ski again, but it has been snowing all day today, so I'm sure I'll be back on the slopes tomorrow.
DC
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